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Three years ago, an IDC study sponsored by EMC predicted a 45-fold growth in digital information in the decade of 2010-2020. Three years later, little seems to stand in the way of the prognostication fulfilling itself.
On the heels of this, researcher McKinsey & Company reports that big data IT talent will be in under-supply, with the U.S. facing a potential shortage of 140,000-190,000 analytics specialists by 2018-and a shortfall of 1.1 million managers and analysts with the background and know-how to plumb data with great questions that produce the kinds of competitive-edge answers enterprises want.
Enter in this discussion IBM’s Watson, a system capable of answering questions in natural language that debuted as a Jeopardy! Winner in 2011, and that continues to grow its value-added analytics capabilities in industry verticals like healthcare, financial services and telecommunications.
Last week, IBM gave its latest Watson presentation to industry analysts. I couldn’t help but be struck by one of the presentation’s’ catch phrases: “Dying of Thirst in an Ocean of Data.”
IBM’s own research reveals that 90 percent of the world’s data was created in the last two years, that 80 percent of all data is now unstructured (and therefore, not able to be processed in traditional transaction processing systems), and that we now have one trillion connected devices generating 2.5 quintillion bytes of data per day. The survey also reveals that one out of every two business leaders say that they don’t have access to the data that they need
Just what do these business leaders want to know?
They want to know what their traditional daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual reports can’t give them-like how their business is doing at this very moment in time, and whether they are winning or losing with consumers and clients. They also want the agility to respond proactively to situations as they need to.
Customer fulfillment and satisfaction is a prime example.
If you are a bookseller and can see from your Website or a call center dialogue with your customer that he is interested in fly fishing, you are in a position to present him several books that fit the bill and broaden your chances of gaining the sale. He likewise goes away fulfilled because he believes that you have listened to him. In fact, you have even aided him in his quest by finding the titles he was searching for.
From an IT standpoint, unsecured data flowing in from the Web (or even voice-based information coming into the call center) has to be instantaneously analyzed and interpreted for results if business are to get to this point.
How important is this?
In its discussion with industry analysts, IBM reported 270 billion calls cost call centers 600 billion dollars each year; that half of these calls require escalation or go unresolved; that 61 percent of the calls could have been resolved with better information; and that companies could gain a potential improvement of 4.6 percent of market share for their wares if they could improve customer satisfaction by a single percent.
This brings us back to drowning of thirst in a sea of data-because no organization can get to this point unless it finds ways to bring these seas of data under control and use methodologies capable of identifying and harvesting the information that they have a need to know. The challenge can’t be solved with hardware and software alone. It also requires identifying the right data to analyze, and determinations about which data should be archived or discarded. This is where many enterprises today find themselves. They don’t know which data to keep and which to discard-and they are looking for a saving methodology.


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LiveRamp launches IdentityLink for Publishers
Participating publishers can offer Facebook-like people-based targeting on their sites.
Acxiom’s LiveRamp began as a way to match offline data with online. Last year, it moved into people-based marketing with the launch of IdentityLink, which provides anonymized identities of actual people in their different guises of multiple devices and channels.
Today, the San Francisco-based company is launching a version of IdentityLink that is designed for publishers, as it hopes to provide the kind of people-based targeting for advertisers that a walled garden like Facebook can offer. Previously, IdentityLink was focused on brands and ad/marketing tech providers.
A brand advertiser can go to Facebook with an email list of its customers or registered visitors, and then target those actual people on the giant social network. This gives Facebook and Google, in particular, a huge advantage over lesser publishers that cannot offer this massive form of people-targeting.
With IdentityLink for Publishers, a publisher like Hearst can provide LiveRamp with an authenticated list of its subscribers or registered visitors. These are the site’s equivalent — much fewer, of course — of Facebook’s membership.
An advertiser like Nike can then take its registered customers/visitors list, have LiveRamp match it via a persistent identifier like a common email address to Hearst’s list, and target those users for ads when they show up on Hearst’s site.
Now, LiveRamp CMO Jeff Smith told me, “if you bring that CRM list to Time, Inc., you can target [on Time’s sites] as you would on Facebook.” In other words, a smaller version of Facebook’s Custom Audiences or Google’s Customer Match.
He added that, as part of this new release, publishers can also provide specialty data for the IdentityLink pool, such as weather data from Weather.com.
Previously, he noted, several hundred publishers participated in IdentityLink by licensing their anonymized, authenticated customer/registered visitor data to the IdentityLink pool in general, but now they can use it for specific targeting on their own properties.
Last year, LiveRamp bought two companies — Arbor and Circulate — that added people-based publisher partnerships.
LiveRamp now joins other publisher-oriented networks that are attempting to offer Facebook-like people-based targeting to regular sites and apps, including Time, Inc./Viant and Sonobi’s new publisher consortium.
Interestingly, though, LiveRamp points to Time, Inc. as one of the publishers using their new IdentityLink for Publishers.

domain: news


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Comcast Business announced Wednesday a two-year, $28 million investment in a major expansion of its advanced, fiber-rich network throughout its Beltway Region of Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia.
The latest expansion will deploys new fiber optic cable or densify existing fiber services in Maryland across the Eastern Shore as well as Frederick and Montgomery counties.
The buildout includes $13 million invested in 2020 and $15 million in projects underway or planned for 2021, extending high-performance Ethernet, internet, advanced voice solutions and more to nearly 7,000 additional businesses.
Once completed, Comcast Business will have committed a total of more than $110 million in area network expansions since 2015, to benefit nearly 35,000 of the region’s largest companies and organizations.
The network expansion delivers speeds up to 1 Gigabit per second (Gbps) for small and medium-sized businesses and up to 100 Gbps for larger enterprises and will support the ability to bring new customers online quickly with advanced services, including fast business Wi-Fi for employees and guests, cybersecurity solutions, 4G LTE backup, business TV and more. Additionally, businesses of all sizes now will have access to a comprehensive portfolio of Comcast Business products and services to help meet the day-to-day demands that require large amounts of bandwidth, linking multiple sites or branch locations or connecting offices to third-party data centers.


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The Center for Cooperatives in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) at The Ohio State University is collaborating with the Center for Economic Development in the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University to understand the economic impacts of COVID-19 on the state’s agricultural co-ops and to estimate the economic contribution of cooperatives to Ohio’s economy. The project will gather data from public sources and interviews of agricultural co-op leaders.
Hannah Scott, Program Manager of the CFAES Center for Cooperatives, explained the goals for the project. “The COVID-19 public health emergency has had far-reaching impacts across so many aspects of our economy. We’re looking forward to better understanding how the state’s cooperatives have weathered the changes brought about by the pandemic — from temporary closures to supply chain shifts. At the same time, we’re collecting information to reliably estimate the economic contribution of co-ops to our state’s overall economy. Ohio is home to some of the largest co-ops in the country and while we know that co-ops are important, we do not currently have a reliable estimate of their economic impact.”
The project work is funded, in part, by a U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) University Center CARES Act Award received by the Center for Economic Development at Cleveland State University. Dr. Iryna Demko, Research Associate with the Center for Economic Development, shared that cooperatives play a unique role in the agri-food supply chain. “The purpose of the agricultural supply chain is the fast and efficient delivery of agricultural products from farmers to consumers. Each cooperative acts as an intermediary in the supply chain by connecting its members to wholesalers,” Demko said. “Cooperatives also purchase products and materials needed for their business to function. We want to quantify the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cooperatives’ supply chain and on their role in the supply chain.”
For more information, contact Hannah Scott, Program Manager of the CFAES Center for Cooperatives at Ohio State, at email@example.com.


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Rockefeller Group Says New Homestead Park Tenants Near
Written by Candice Ventra on September 21, 2000
By Candice Ventra
A half-year into an aggressive marketing campaign, managers of the Homestead Park of Commerce say they are close to luring two to five more tenants in the near future.
New Jersey-based Rockefeller Group real estate development and property management company launched a marketing campaign in April to fill the 280-acre Homestead Park of Commerce, said Les Smith, senior vice president with Rockefeller.
He said the park, which builds to suit, presently has two tenants: Silver Eagle Anheuser-Busch Distribution Co. and Contender Boat Yards.
"I can’t announce any names yet or dates because we haven’t signed any leases," Mr. Smith said. "We are very busy meeting with lots of different brokers and clients."
The marketing campaign, he said, includes direct mail orders to potential tenants and meetings with brokers and company site planners.
The Homestead Park of Commerce is an official foreign trade zone a feature Rockefeller employers highlight in their tenant search, he said. The designation allows businesses in the zone to have certain benefits, such as duty-free importing and exporting.
"This is especially important when we appear in front of the industry groups that deal with international trade," Mr. Smith said.
Homestead officials said the Vision Council the economic development agency for Homestead, holds the license for the zone.
Interested business and companies may buy or rent space at the park, said Charles LaPradd, City of Homestead spokesman. He said the city is also doing in-house marketing to complement the Rockefeller Group’s campaign.
Mr. LaPradd said the city aims to get businesses that specialize in manufacturing, distribution and call center services at the park. Officials there look to attract local businesses looking to expand or move as well as businesses in other states and countries.
Businesses looking to expand, he said, should take note of the park, because Homestead is the future of Miami-Dade County.
"This is where Miami-Dade County is growing to by virtue of the fact that there is nowhere else for them to go in the county," Mr. LaPradd said. "We are about one minute from the Florida Turnpike and 25 miles from downtown Miami not as far away from downtown as people think."
He said future tenants may like the idea that the Homestead Sports Complex and the Homestead-Miami Motor Speedway which hosts the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing’s Winston Cup are near the park.
The proximity of the complexes will hopefully bring more business into the area, he said. Details: (973) 347-9100; City of Homestead, (305) 247-1801; Vision Council, (305) 247-7082.


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No One Sure What Nob Hill Should Be
By Dennis Domrzalski and Sara MacNeil
Nob Hill, Albuquerque’s only real neighborhood shopping district, may be defined through the years by its adaptability.
Nearly abandoned in the 1970s when retail businesses and shoppers moved to the Coronado and Winrock malls, the area reinvented itself in the 1980s as a thriving strip of small, eclectic, mom-and-pop retail shops and restaurants resembling the pedestrian-friendly neighborhood shopping districts in older big cities.
Now, Nob Hill is changing once again.
Small retailers are closing, and bars, breweries and restaurants are taking their places. Sidewalks once populated with graying pony-tailed baby boomers, university students and young families pushing baby strollers are increasingly being filled with bar-goers.
And with that change come fears by neighborhood residents and business owners that the area will become another bar-heavy Downtown, complete with rowdy drunks, fights, and vomit and urine in streets and alleys.
Much of the change is being driven by technology and changing shopping habits as more people shop online, at destination malls like ABQ Uptown and at big-name retailers. Those changes raise the question of whether the small, family-owned retail shops that are the heart of Nob Hill can survive.
At the same time, Mayor Richard Berry’s Albuquerque Rapid Transit project is permanently altering the portion of Central Avenue that runs through Nob Hill, and the project’s critics fear it will forever transform Nob Hill into a collection of franchise stores and chain restaurants.
What they want
The changes being forced upon it raise questions about what, exactly, Nob Hill wants to be.
Many area residents say they want the neighborhood to be more of what it was before the bars and restaurants moved in. In an unscientific ABQ Free Press Weekly survey over several weeks, residents used terms such as small, family-run, clothing, entertainment, arts, jewelry and retail shops.
Ron Halbgewachs, president of the Nob Hill Neighborhood Association, said Nob Hill should try to land “brand-name anchor stores” that will be attractive to millennials.
“Attracting millennials is the goal. Young people do web searches looking for main stores,” Halbgewachs said. “Any shopping mall uses anchor stores. There are plenty of bars and restaurants that need to be balanced with stores.”
The city’s consultant, Robert Gibbs, said Nob Hill “should remain as a specialty district, not a modern shopping center.”
“Nob Hill will have a hard time surviving unless new retail is brought in,” he said.
But neither Halbgewachs nor Gibbs could offer examples of what kinds of anchor stores they’d like to see, although they made clear they’re not talking about Walmarts or Targets. Neither man explained how the area, with its dearth of parking and old, small retail spaces, would be able to attract anchor stores.
Gibbs said that the area needs more parking, slower traffic and more landscaping to become more attractive to new retail tenants. More trees, flowers and less graffiti would be a good start, he said.
Currently, Nob Hill is made up of 70-80 percent independent local retailers, Gibbs said. He envisions a desired mix of 10 percent national retailers, 30-40 percent regional retailers, and 50 percent local retailers.
No mas restaurants
Attorney Morris Chavez tried to open a Mexican restaurant with a full-service bar in Nob Hill but saw his concept shot down. Nob Hill knows what it doesn’t want, he said, but doesn’t know what it does want.
“It depends who you ask. Some want Nob Hill to be a huge shopping and entertainment district. Others want it to be a quiet neighborhood,” Chavez said. “I would like to see it grow into a vibrant and prospering neighborhood with a mix of shops, restaurants and cultural entertainment.”
Competition and congestion are two reasons Nob Hill residents and business owners cite in their opposition to more restaurants and bars. Existing restaurants don’t want the competition, while the surrounding neighborhood doesn’t want the congestion and parking problems restaurants and cars bring to side streets off Central Avenue.
Jean Bernstein, owner of the Flying Star restaurants, said restaurants bring in many more customers than do retail shops. In the course of an hour, anyone counting heads entering businesses along Central can see that. But the debate always seems to come back to parking.
“A lot of places that were retail have become restaurants, and the problem is that that parking spills into residential areas,” Bernstein said. “But landlords love restaurants because they pay more and they sign longer leases.”
Bernstein doesn’t think the area can become the nostalgic haven for small, locally owned retailers. “Nob Hill is no longer what it was built to be,” she said. “It would be better if there were a better mix, but we have to be realistic.”
Architect Tony Anella, an ART opponent who owns several properties on Central in Nob Hill and the University area, said he thinks ART will accelerate the death spiral of small retail that the internet is already damaging. Reduced vehicular traffic will mean fewer customers for many businesses, which then won’t be able to afford their rents, Anella said, which in turn will lead to mortgage problems for landlords.
“Developers will swoop in and buy up those properties,” Anella said, adding that they would most likely be rented to restaurant chains and franchise stores because banks see them as less risky than lending to mom-and-pop operators.
If that scenario plays out, “I think you will see a proliferation of the franchise culture [along Central],” Anella said. “You are going to see this organic success story transform itself with a lot more of the same – franchise culture, franchise America.”
Despite the talk of doom and gloom along the ART route, Nob Hill is showing success in filling commercial space that had remained vacant following the recession.
The vacancy rate for commercial spaces around the city is 7 percent, but in Nob Hill, it’s 5.6 percent, said Dan Hernandez, an associate broker at Berger Briggs Real Estate & Insurance Inc. “ART might be causing some retailers to give up the ghost, but we haven’t seen that yet,” he said.
The flip side of the internet threat to local retail, Hernandez said, is that it “has given small mom-and-pop businesses access to the world” and that market-savvy retailers no longer have to rely solely on customers from their immediate area.
“Before, you were really restricted to someone that was in driving distance of you,” Hernandez said. “And plus, they might not have even known that you existed.”
Sara MacNeil is an ABQ Free Press Weekly reporting intern. Dennis Domrzalski is an associate editor at ABQ Free Press Weekly.
Latest posts by Dennis Domrzalski (see all)
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Design News readers voted Parker Hannifin's website (www.parker.com) as the best one for fluid power technology. What do they like best about it? Ease of navigation in finding product and technical information got high marks. And in the event they can't find what they're looking for right away or have questions, an 800 number is prominently displayed on the home page. Bimba (www.bimba.com) and Bosch Rexroth (www.boschrexroth.com) also good grades marks from design engineers.
BMW has already incorporated more than 10,000 3D-printed parts in the Rolls-Royce Phantom and intends to expand the use of 3D printing in its cars even more in the future. Meanwhile, Daimler has started using additive manufacturing for producing spare parts in Mercedes-Benz Trucks.
Researchers have been developing a number of nano- and micro-scale technologies that can be used for implantable medical technology for the treatment of disease, diagnostics, prevention, and other health-related applications.
SABIC's lightweighting polycarbonate glazing materials have appeared for the first time in a production car: the rear quarter window of Toyota's special edition 86 GRMN sports car, where they're saving 50% of its weight compared to conventional glass.
Focus on Fundamentals consists of 45-minute on-line classes that cover a host of technologies.
You learn without leaving the comfort of your desk. All classes are taught by subject-matter experts and all are archived.
So if you can't attend live, attend at your convenience.


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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that he has planned to introduce NFTs into Instagram in the near future. However, the CEO of Meta and founder of Facebook didn’t provide information about his supposed plan.
He classified the unification of non-fungible tokens into the photo and video sharing app of the company. Zuckerberg delivered his words in a discussion with Daymond John of Shark Tank.
Zuckerberg said the team is working to present NFTs to Instagram very soon. He wasn’t ready to declare exact details about the ongoing process but confirmed to announce within a couple of months.
The founder of Facebook added that NFT can mint your avatar wearing in the Metaverse and you can get it from different places.
Instagram Head confirmed the arrival of NFTs
Moreover, the head of Instagram Adam Mosseri confirmed in December 2021 about the NFTs. He said the company was exploring NFTs with the objective of offering technology to its global audiences.
Mosseri believes it is an amazing place to play and also provides significant support to creators. It is noteworthy that multiple plans were already in the process.
Instagram hosted an invite-only virtual summit last summer. The company categorized it as a ‘Private event for NFT Creators’ in the invitations. However, the interest of Instagram in bringing NFTs disagrees with the greater imagination of its parent company Meta.
NFTs plans aren’t a Farewell
The company’s wider creativity shows an unproductive interconnected virtual world crowded with digital items. Moreover, the NFT plans of the company are not considered a farewell for anyone and for those tracking innovation of Meta.
There was also a major problem that the track record of Meta for products in the crypto-verse is constant. The company decreased the major plans for its own cryptocurrency due to experiencing breezes from regulators and central banks.
Twitter also announced NFTs
It is important that Twitter introduced a new feature on January 20, 2022. The new feature allows users to show off their NFTs (non-fungible tokens). It provides a way to verify digital funds dispersed on the blockchain.
The social platform is offering NFT Profile Picture on iOS to Twitter Blue subscribers. It is very similar to accessing the previous Labs feature of Twitter Blue. The company will announce the NFT product support for Twitter within a couple of months to the web and Android users.
Keep in mind that only iOS users are able to set their profile picture as NFT. It will allow everyone on Twitter to see the new picture without considering your currently using platform. However, the subscription service of Twitter Blue isn’t available worldwide.
Set NFTs as Your Profile Picture
It would undertake the endorsement of NFT Profile Picture to live markets in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. The company formerly suggested its plans to completely release NFTs. It has now become a major topic of discussion on the platform.
Most of the crypto-lovers have already set the NFT photo as their profile picture. However, the social platform hasn’t yet provided any official details about verifying ownership and a crypto wallet of a user. The company offered a first look at its plans about NFTs in September 2021 following a flood of other updates.
Twitter also publicized how verification could enable creators to better present their innovations on the platform. The company was working to explore ideas to efficiently showcase their contributions. Twitter Blue subscribers can simply go to their profile and change profile picture with an NFT photo.


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A toast to Virginia’s record wine sales
Gov. Bob McDonnell has good reason to break open a bottle of Virginia wine and celebrate: Wine produced by the state’s vineyards posted record sales last year.
Virginia wineries sold about 485,000 cases of wine during the 2012 fiscal year, which ended June 30. That was up about 2 percent from the previous record of 477,000 cases in 2011. And wine exports, to both other states and other countries, jumped a combined 39 percent.
“More sales provide more economic development and job creation opportunities, especially for the vineyards, wineries and the many businesses supporting them, like restaurants and bed-and-breakfast establishments, all across the commonwealth,” McDonnell said this week in announcing the sales figures.
The biggest increase was in the export of Virginia wines to other countries, especially the United Kingdom and China. The state wine industry’s international exports quadrupled – from about 700 cases in 2011 to more than 3,300 cases last year.
“Virginia wines continue to be rising stars in the global wine industry,” said Virginia Secretary of Agriculture and Forestry Todd Haymore. He noted that Wine Enthusiast magazine named Virginia as one of the top ten wine destinations in the world.
Katie Hellebush, executive director of the Virginia Wine Council, says the governor and first lady Maureen McDonnell have been “our greatest cheerleaders” in promoting wines from the state’s vineyards.
Sales of Virginia wines to other U.S. states increased 24 percent last year – to more than 14,000 cases.
Virginia is fifth in the country in the number of wineries; there are more than 230 in the Old Dominion. The industry provides jobs for more than 4,700 Virginians and pumps almost $750 million into the state’s economy.
Hellebush said the wine industry could get even bigger with help from the General Assembly.
“We have put forth legislation in the past to create tax credits to be able to provide for growth in the industry,” she said.
“A lot of the equipment people are using is very expensive. And so that is just kind of one more tool in the toolbox for people to be able to use to have some funding to help them grow their business.”
For details, visit the Virginia Wine Marketing Office's website at http://www.virginiawine.org
Richmonders Jim Morgan and Dan Stackhouse were married at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Lakeside Mar. 7 month after winning the Say I Do! With OutRVA wedding contest in February. The contest was open to LGBT couples in recognition of Virginia’s marriage equality law, which took effect last fall. The wedding included a package valued at $25,000.
Morgan and Stackhouse, who became engaged last fall on the day marriage equality became the law in Virginia, have been together for 16 years. They were selected from among 40 couples who registered for the contest. The winners were announced at the Say I Do! Dessert Soiree at the Renaissance in Richmond in February. > Read more.
The Fourth Annual Healy Gala will be held Saturday, Apr. 11, at The Cultural Arts Center at Glen Allen from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m.
The event was created to honor Michael Healy, a local businessman and community leader who died suddenly in June 2011, and to endow the Mike Healy Scholarship (through the Glen Allen Ruritan Club), which benefits students of Glen Allen High School.
Healy served as the chairman of Glen Allen Day for several years and helped raise thousands of dollars for local charities and organizations. > Read more.
The Richmond Battlefield Ruritan Club is holding a Brunswick stew sale, with orders accepted through March 13 and pick-up available March 14. The cost is $8 per quart.
Pick-up will be at noon, March 14, at the Richmond Heights Civic Center, 7440 Wilton Road in Varina.
To place an order, call Mike at (804) 795- 7327 or Jim at (804) 795-9116. > Read more.
Disney’s no-frills, live-action ‘Cinderella’ delights
Cinderella is the latest from Disney’s new moviemaking battle plan: producing live-action adaptations of all their older classics. Which is a plan that’s had questionable results in the past.
Alice in Wonderland bloated with more Tim Burton goth-pop than the inside of a Hot Topic. Maleficent was a step in the right direction, but the movie couldn’t decide if Maleficent should be a hero or a villain (even if she should obviously be a villain) and muddled itself into mediocrity.
Cinderella is much better. Primarily, because it’s just Cinderella. No radical rebooting. No Tim Burton dreck. It’s the 1950 Disney masterpiece, transposed into live action and left almost entirely untouched. > Read more.
The Cultural Arts Center at Glen Allen’s 2nd Stage series will present “An Evening of Country” with The Honky Tonk Experience, April 9-10 at 7 p.m. in the center’s Cardinal Ballroom.
Formed in the spring of 2003, The Honky Tonk Experience performs country classics and current country music, from Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings to Dwight Yoakam and Dale Watson. The “Experience” is composed of five local musicians – Brad Spivey, Mike Lucas, Mark Watts, Clark Ball and Ryland Tinnell. The group has shared the stage with several national acts, including Travis Tritt, BR5-49, Dale Watson, Webb Wilder and Junior Brown. > Read more.
Find out how your favorite dining establishments fared during their most recent inspections by the Virginia Department of Health. > Read more.
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ClassifiedsREADERS & MUSIC LOVERS. 100 Greatest Novels (audio books) ONLY $99.00 (plus s h.) Includes MP3 Player & Accessories. BONUS: 50 Classical Music Works & Money Back Guarantee. Call Today!… Full text
CalendarTwin Hickory Library will host a discussion of the All Henrico Reads book, “Silver Sparrow,” by Tayari Jones at 7 p.m. Newcomers are welcome. For details, visit http://www.henricolibrary.org/ahr Full text


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By Nick Kostov
LONDON (MarketWatch) — The FTSE 100 was up on Friday, with more well-received data out of China boosting miners for a second day running.
The benchmark /zigman2/quotes/210598409/delayed UK:UKX -0.0088% gained 0.8 % to close at 6,583.39, after snapping a four-day losing streak on Thursday. The gain wasn’t enough to send it higher on the week, and it closed with a weekly loss of 1%.
Market optimism in Friday was fueled by data from China that showed industrial production in July was up 9.7% from a year earlier, its fastest rate of growth since February. In addition, consumer prices in China rose at a slower-than-expected rate in July, up 2.7%.
“There’s hope that the trough has bottomed out and going into the third quarter, economic activity in China will pick up,” said Timo del Carpio, a European economist at RBC Capital Markets.
Miners narrowed their losses on the year, with the top eight performers on Friday all from the sector.
Fresnillo PLC /zigman2/quotes/201300065/delayed UK:FRES -1.23% /zigman2/quotes/203613035/composite FNLPF -1.41% led the pack, up 8.2%. Randgold Resources Ltd. added 6.8%, Anglo American PLC /zigman2/quotes/201381512/delayed UK:AAL -3.93% /zigman2/quotes/204130805/composite AAUKF -4.14% rose 6.1%, Vedanta Resources PLC was up 5.4% and BHP Billiton PLC /zigman2/quotes/201448516/delayed AU:BHP -2.91% rose 3.4%. Metals prices were higher across the board.
The best way to end Apple-Samsung patent battle
The patent fight between the smartphone giants returns to the spotlight, with U.S. regulators poised to rule on whether to ban some Samsung products. The WSJ’s Yun-Hee Kim speaks about the implications with Ronald Yu, who teaches patent law at Hong Kong University.
Shares of Rio Tinto PLC /zigman2/quotes/208934945/delayed UK:RIO -1.67% /zigman2/quotes/200083756/delayed AU:RIO -2.30% /zigman2/quotes/204234152/composite RTNTF -6.12% , the world’s second-largest iron-ore producer, added 5%.
Other big companies were also on the move. British supermarket giant Tesco PLC /zigman2/quotes/203761082/delayed UK:TSCO -0.27% /zigman2/quotes/208796454/composite TSCDF +2.11% was up 1.6% after it revealed it is in talks with China Resources Enterprise Ltd. /zigman2/quotes/201959750/delayed HK:291 +4.56% to form a joint venture in China, where foreign retailers have struggled to expand market share.
Some big U.K. retailers were bucking the positive trend. Shares of Marks & Spencer Group PLC /zigman2/quotes/206225481/delayed UK:MKS +1.99% dropped 2%, and Next PLC /zigman2/quotes/200704121/delayed UK:NXT +2.12% was down 1.3%. Luxury-clothes retailer Burberry Group PLC /zigman2/quotes/205386705/delayed UK:BRBY -0.55% lost 1%.
The biggest loser was insurance firm Standard Life PLC , down 3.3%. The insurance firm had already dropped 2.6% Thursday after reporting a 6.6% drop in first-half pretax profit.


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September 13 2009
Early in the administration of George W. Bush, the former president applied provisions of US trade law to levy new tariffs on imports of steel. The move, ultimately struck down as illegal by the World Trade Organisation, was a calculated and somewhat cynical effort to convince organised labour to be less opposing of the president’s market-opening trade agenda. However, labour groups, notably steelworkers, were not appeased by the move, and fought each new trade deal with abandon.
During his presidential campaign, Barack Obama talked tough on trade, notably with China, and promised to stand up for American workers against other countries’ unfair trade practices. Meanwhile, his campaign quietly reassured other countries of the candidate’s appreciation for open markets and liberalised trade. “He’s a free trader,” said his economic advisors in hushed tones. “Don’t worry.”
So what are we to make of the president’s decision to impose new tariffs on tyres imported from China ?
The tough rhetoric of the campaign has largely vanished during the first eight months of the presidency, replaced by soothing assurances about the importance of fighting protectionism in the midst of the economic crisis. The president periodically perfumes the rotting corpse of the Doha round by committing to its successful conclusion in multilateral statements. Occasional rhetorical orchids are tossed towards pending free-trade deals with Panama, Colombia and Korea. Despite the change in tone, however, the trade agenda is mired in stasis; largely hostage to campaign obligations to Mr Obama’s labour allies and other political priorities.
This is unfortunate. Commitment to multilateralism and an engaging humility has done much to convince other countries the president wants to reforge American leadership. Yet the world is still looking for tangible evidence that the US is genuinely committed to global economic recovery. Although the rhetoric has provided some comfort, the world (and particularly the developing world) is primarily scrutinising the president’s actions (and inaction) on trade.
As the first major White House decision on trade, therefore, the levying of new tariffs on imports of Chinese tyres is not particularly heartening. To be sure, China is no angel in international trade matters. As everywhere, China’s domestic politics complicate Beijing’s economic policies and bedevil efforts of international negotiators to ensure a level playing field in cross-border trade. But this particular White House decision, taken through a process that is widely despised in China as uniquely discriminatory against that country, is no mere slap on the wrist for run-of-the-mill Chinese perfidies. This decision provides fodder for nationalist interests in China that will not just push for tit-for-tat retaliation against US economic interests, but play into a broader trend within China to roll back market-opening reforms. That could result in a back-and-forth battle of retaliatory trade measures which, given the importance of US-China trade relations to global commerce, will provide cheer to only the most parochial of interests worldwide.
Charitable, pro-trade voices might argue that the president had no political choice. Given the stalemate on trade policy in the US, the president had to give labour groups an early victory. It is certainly difficult to find an economic rationale for the decision. The domestic tyre industry has multiple alternative markets to China from which to import tyres that are more competitive than the US, absent a dramatic restructuring of our industrial base. We may import fewer tyres from China, but this decision is not going to jumpstart moribund domestic tyre production. This is protectionism without the protection. Pure appeasement politics: calculated and cynical.
But labour will not be so easily appeased. The president may hope that the tyre decision affords him some political space to move forward on a positive trade agenda. He may find instead that he has bought himself more domestic difficulty by awakening the protectionist fantasies of a legion of other industries; and dashed hopes among the developing world that his administration is not simply a retread of other, politically myopic US administrations of years past.
The writer holds the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington,DC. He is a former assistant US trade representative for China affairs


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Portuguese wine eyes ChinaThis article was originally published in Foodnews
DAO Sul, a Portuguese winemaker, will begin exporting its wines to China through a joint venture, a spokesperson for the company said, writes Jennifer Willis-Jones. José Roseiro, commercial director for Dão Sul, hoped that the project would be finalised this year. The company currently exports 54 500 bottles of wine to the country, and is hoping to "multiply this by six". The news will be welcomed by the Portuguese Wine Trade Association which debuted its tasting event in Beijing last week, bringing over 200 wines from 18 wine producers. Last year, Portugal ranked 12th in wine exports to China, exporting EUR1.5 millions' worth of wine, while export volume grew by 36% between 2004 and 2009. The biggest market for Portuguese wine in volume terms is Angola, a former overseas territory. Some 6.1 million litres of bulk wine was exported to the country between January and February 2010 for USD97.5 million, a slight fall on the 34.6 million litres exported in the same period in 2009.


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Heavyweight Chinese Internet companies such as Alibaba and Tencent received a hefty fine on Wednesday by China’s anti-monopoly regulators. A total of 22 companies were fined 500,000 yuan (US$75,000) each for acquiring stakes in companies that could improperly build their market share, said the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) on its website. According to SAMR, the parties fined include six companies owned by Alibaba Group, five by Tencent Holdings and two by retailer Suning.com.
In April, Alibaba was fined US$2.8 billion, which was one of the heftiest fines faced by a Chinese company. SAMR alleged in a statement that since 2015, the Group "has abused its dominant position in the market" and imposed a "Choose one out of two" requirement for its merchants. It also claimed that this has prohibited Alibaba's merchants from opening stores or participating in promotional activities on other rival platforms.
Meanwhile earlier this week, it was reported that antitrust regulators in China will be blocking Tencent Holdings’ merger of the top two videogame streaming sites, Huya and DouYu. This came as Tencent failed to produce remedies to meet SAMR's requirements on giving up exclusive rights.
Tencent also withdrew its merger application for antitrust review as it was unable to complete a resubmission within 180 days after submitting the application for the first time. The news of the merger of Huya and DouYu emerged last year. Currently, Tencent currently owns a 36.9% stake in Huya and more than 33% in DouYu. The two platforms hold the top two positions in China’s video gaming streaming industry and are popular destinations for esports tournaments streaming and professional gamers.
The Chinese government also asked ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing to remove from app stores due to serious violations on Didi Global's collection and usage of personal information. Multiple reports said Chinese cybersecurity watchdog, the Cyberspace Administration of China, announced the ban on Sunday, just two days after the regulator said it was starting a cybersecurity review of the company.
The authority said on Sunday that it ordered Didi Chuxing to rectify its problems following legal requirements and national standards and take steps to protect the personal information of its users. On the same day, Didi Chuxing said it had halted new user registrations as of 3 July and was now working to rectify its app in accordance with regulatory requirements. Just yesterday, CNBC reported that Didi's main app was removed as a shortcut from WeChat and Alipay.
Photo courtesy: 123RF


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Gazillion Entertainment has announced that Squirrel Girl is now available on the massive roster of playable superheroes in Marvel Heroes. Players can now harness the raw power of Squirrel Girl, including her Ultimate Power to summon waves of squirrels to rain devastation on all of her foes in the form of hundreds of tiny teeth.
In addition to Squirrel Girl being added to Marvel Heroes, the all-new enhanced Superior Spider-Man costume is now available. Superior Spiderman features brand new dialogue, animations and allows players to play as a darker version of Spider-Man, whose body has been taken over by the mind of Doctor Octopus. Also included in this update is the first ever enhanced pet complete with dialogue, Spider-Ham!
To celebrate the launch of Squirrel Girl as a playable Marvel superhero, Gazillion Entertainment has released the all-new trailer for Squirrel Girl, available below, and Electronic Theatre will keep you updated with all the latest details on Marvel Heroes.


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Uber Technologies Inc. has agreed to pay $20 million to nearly 14,000 drivers to settle a class action lawsuit alleging that the ride-hailing company misclassified those drivers as independent contractors. The settlement only includes drivers in Massachusetts and California that did not have arbitration clauses in their contracts with Uber. In 2015, a California federal …
Five hundred class members who are part of a 2017 class-action suit against Uber alleging pay discrimination and harassment against women and people of color have agreed to settle their dispute with Uber for $10 million. Of that larger group, 56 specifically filed claims alleging sexual harassment or a hostile work environment, and will receive …
A Kings County New York Judge has ruled that Uber cannot force arbitration on a customer, finding that Uber had not proven that the customer agreed to arbitrate disputes when she signed up on-line for Uber’s services.
Uber won praise on May 12, 2018, when it announced it would no longer steer sexual misconduct claims into arbitration. However, the announcement failed to note that the company refrained from any promises that it would free victims from arbitration agreements if their claims are part of class action litigation.
A proposed class action filed in California federal court alleges that Uber’s upfront pricing model charges passengers a higher fare based on a longer route, but requires drivers to take the shortest route, allowing Uber to pocket the difference.
Uber has agreed to pay up to $100 million to settle a class-action lawsuit which resolves a major challenge to its business model by allowing the ride-hailing service to keep its California and Massachusetts drivers as independent contractors.
Uber drivers scored a major victory against the ride-hailing company Tuesday when a California federal judge agreed to certify a class of Golden State drivers who claim they were mislabeled as independent contractors and cheated out of tips.


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City of Ale beer launch to celebrate Norfolk aerobatics team
PUBLISHED: 10:31 16 April 2019 | UPDATED: 11:10 17 April 2019
A Norfolk brewery is set to launch a new beer to celebrate a milestone for one of the UK's
most dynamic aerobatic display teams.
Wildcraft Brewery, based in Buxton, has created Wildcat beer alongside Norfolk-based Wildcat Aerobatics, who mark ten years together as a team in 2019.
They fly a pair of Pitts Special biplanes and display throughout the UK and Europe.
The beer will officially be launched on cask at Norwich City of Ale on May 23.
You can sample the beer and watch Wildcat Aerobatics at the same time on Saturday June 1, when the team plans to display at Wildcraft Brewery's WildFest event in Buxton.
For more information visit www.wildcataerobatics.com and www.wildcraftbrewery.co.uk


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Online megastore Flipkart today announced the launch of five new tablets under it’s in house brand Digiflip Pro. These tablets will be powered by Intel Atom Processors. These tablets are available exclusively on Flipkart and are priced from Rs. 5,999 onwards.
BINATONE today announced launch of “3G SIM Based Mifi Router with Turbo Power Bank (5000 mAh)”. The device has facility to create a Wi-Fi hotspot for upto 10 users at a time. Additionally it equips a built-in SD card reader upto 32 GB for Wireless Files Sharing.
XOLO 8X-1000 will be the first smartphone featuring HIVE. XOLO 8X-1000 is new octa-core smartphone will offer a host of exclusive features and enhancements to change the way users interact with their device.
ASUS today launched the Chromebox in India at a media gathering in Mumbai. The ASUS Chromebox is 12 cm X 12 cm sized fast, compact home or office computer that runs on Chrome OS.
Karbon has launched two entry-level Android smartphones starting from Rs.3290. The two mobile phones are A1+ Super and A5 Turbo. These phones are priced at Rs.3490 and Rs.3290 respectively. Both the smartphones share similar specs except processor.
Airtel today announced launch of 21 Mbps 3G dongle in Delhi-NCR. The newly launched 3G data card is powered by the HSPA+ technology and it also enables customer to create a Wi-Fi hotspot anywhere, anytime by just plugging the dongle to any USB port. The Airtel WiFi dongle can be connected to any available USB port in laptop, phone charger or even a car stereo to create WiFi hotspot.
Panasonic has further strengthened its portfolio of smartphones with the launch of three new Android smartphones for Indian markets P 61, T41 and P41.
Vodafone India today announced a ‘Every Recharge Wins’ initiative which will benefit its 160 million pre-paid customers. This claims to be a largest nationwide initiative till date, which awards each customer an assured prize; making every recharging customer a winner!
Bharti Airtel’s 4G services are now available across 4 towns in Punjab i.e Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Phagwara and Kapurthala. Airtel 4G is already launched in Chandigarh-Tricity, Ludhiana and Jalandhar
Sony Mobile has launched its latest Xperia series smartphone ‘Xperia C3 ‘ touted as smartphone for selfies


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E-retailer Zalora has unified its customer support channels, resulting in a “significant reduction” in cart abandonment as well as a better experience for customers and agents.
The company, which has a presence in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia Brunei, the Philippines, Hong Kong and Taiwan, deployed Freshdesk Omnichannel from vendor Freshworks.
It used the helpdesk software to “streamline customer support activity from instant messaging to social media into one platform.”
Previously, support agents had to respond to queries on multiple separate systems and applications, which slowed them down.
“With a unified view of customer interaction and transaction history across digital channels, agents can engage in more personalised conversations and increase customer retention,” the two companies said.
Zalora’s director of payments Kannan Rajaratnam said the company had seen a “huge surge in online shoppers” as a result of the pandemic.
“Customers today are constantly online, on multiple devices. They expect instant gratification, which means our brand must be available 24/7 on all channels,” Rajaratnam said.
“Using Freshdesk, we have seen a significant reduction in abandoned carts, and we find 75 percent of our customers become repeat shoppers.
“Prioritising chat support on instant messaging and social media helped increase loyalty with our ‘digital native’ customers.”
The software also helps Zalora agents juggle more support chats simultaneously, which means it no longer has to employ a lot of temporary agents for high-traffic events like Black Friday and 11-11.
“Instead of having to hire several hundred part-time agents for a month, each Zalora agent can now manage up to six customers simultaneously,” the companies said.


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Exclusive: Robinhood-owned Say launches shareholder messaging
Say Technologies, a Robinhood subsidiary, is launching a new messaging feature that enables public companies to send tailored communications directly to retail investors within its network, and allows them to respond.
Why it matters: Newer trading apps, including Robinhood, Public and WeBull, are all competing for younger investors, and building ways to connect companies directly with shareholders.
- Individual investors — through retail and private banks, wealth managers, and self-directed accounts — are expected to dominate global investing by 2030, making up more than 61% of worldwide assets.
- That necessitates a shift toward more multi-channel, virtual and conversational communications, a report from consultancy Indefi concluded last year.
How it works: Right now, there are about 50 companies that compensate Say, based on their size and depth of engagement with verified shareholders.
- Existing features like Q&A and shareholder proxy voting aim to gather feedback. The new messaging function can build a better direct relationship between companies and their shareholders.
Our thought bubble: According to Alexander Lebow, co-founder and CEO of Say Technologies, retail investors generally tend to be more pro-management. Therefore, companies that engage with shareholders could mobilize that base against activists proposals.
What they're saying: "We don't take sides ... we're on [a] multi-decade project ... to totally reconstruct the shareholder communications infrastructure," Lebow tells Axios in an interview.
- At the same time, Lebow said that Say has also discovered that public companies view new forms of engagement as "interesting in the activism defense world," because of how costly attacks can be.
- "These are existential situations for the companies. And we have access ... to not just to get the message out to large numbers of shareholders, but get them to vote," he said.
The big picture: Because Say's platform enables voting and messaging in one place, the ease has already proven successful in driving retail voting — "the Holy Grail of retail engagement," according to Lebow.
What to watch: Millions of investors have used Say's proxy voting and Q&A services, and the company's APIs mean "other brokerage platforms, whoever wants to incorporate our experiences in [their] app, can do so."


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Suresh Prabhu hinted at improvement in India’s ranking in the World Bank’s ease of doing business report, to be released Wednesday. We already have improved substantially. We will make the formal announcement tomorrow with the World Bank (releasing its report), Prabhu said. He said that India would like to work with the US on global challenges to multi-lateral trading system and matters related to existential issues of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Citing a report, he said about 2,300 firms operating in China may be looking to shift their bases outside and we want to offer them a choice based on intrinsic advantages that India offers.
As many as 3,500 Indian products from different sectors like chemicals and engineering get duty-free access to the US market under the GSP, introduced in 1976.


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LUBBOCK - Textile Exchange has launched a new version of its Preferred Fiber and Materials Matrix (PFMM) tool which aims to assess the performance of different sustainability standards within various material categories.
The new version of the PFMM, which is open-source for the first time, is part of Textile Exchange's attempt to improve the data on which the industry relies to measure its sustainability progress.
"I think the PFMM has really helped bring to life our LCA+ approach,” Beth Jensen, Textile Exchange's climate+ impact director, told Ecotextile News. "Our climate plus strategy says we need to look at climate as well as other impact areas, like biodiversity and water and soil health. And so the intent of the PFMM is to bring that to life."


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Apple tarts and caramel cheesecake won’t know what hit them. Biscoff spread has arrived, and it’s shaking up sweet teeth all across Australia.
Belgian-born biscuit brand, Lotus, has launched a new biscuit spread – Biscoff – and it’s perfect for weekend baking.
What does Biscoff spread taste like?
The jar says it’s made from crushed Speculoos biscuits, which means it’s delicious. Plus, it’s an alternative to canned caramel because it’s vegan! Not that it matters – we’d eat it anyway!
You can spread Biscoff on toast just like you use peanut butter. Try adding it to an apple tart or a caramel cheesecake. Or you could just have it on a biscuit with your next tea or coffee.
Where can I buy Lotus Biscoff spread?
Don’t worry, you don’t need to fly to Belgium to taste Biscoff spread. A 400g jar is available from all good supermarkets for just $5.50.


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American Seafoods Group announced that its Board of Directors has selected Mikel Durham to serve as its chief executive officer effective January 16, 2017. Current CEO and Chairman Bernt Bodal will continue as chairman.
“I am delighted to welcome Mikel Durham to the American Seafoods family,” said Bodal. “Mikel is a talented food service and consumer products executive with a proven track record of strong performance. I look forward to working closely with her to build greater awareness and demand for the healthy and sustainably-harvested wild seafood products we produce.”
Durham comes to American Seafoods with deep experience in the food service and consumer products industries and with substantial product innovation and channel development expertise. She is an independent board member of Tyson Foods and has previously served as the global growth officer of PepsiCo’s North America Foodservice business, president of Burger King North America, president of global supply chain for Cadbury Schweppes, managing director of Guinness Venture Markets, Chief Commercial Officer of CSM Bakery Solutions, and General Manager of Yum! Southern Europe. Durham holds a B.A. in Economics from Smith College and an MBA from Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.
“American Seafoods is a leader in supplying high-quality, sustainably-harvested, and healthy wild-caught seafood products throughout the world,” stated Durham. “I’m excited for the opportunity to work with this dynamic organization to further realize its growth objectives.”


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That's getting in the holiday spirit?
Farrah Abraham was recently at the Hustler store in West Hollywood, and she was promoting her own personalized brand of sex toys.
She was Elsa from the movie Frozen.
[Image via Twitter.]
What a wonderful success!
In the end, it was totally worth it because Allison and Amelia Tucker were completely separate by the afternoon. They shared their chest wall, diaphragm, pericardium and liver, and it's said they were "excellent candidates" for separation.
The doctor says the twins will be monitored closely during their recovery and should be able to live "full, healthy and independent lives."
[Image via ABC News.]


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Apple’s iPhone 6 series introduced 3D Touch, a hardware function that measures the hardness of a press on the screen.
Such a feature can be handy for all sorts of developers, especially game developers. It gives them the ability to measure both length and depth of a press. Android devices already have the same functionality, including the Huawei Mate S.
A developer in the UK has taken the concept and made a digital scale out of it. Called the “plum-o-meter,” the code has been made available to the public via Github.
Writing about the project on his blog, FlexMonkey, Gladman claims that the reason for the creation was in order to ensure that his significant other always gets the largest plum. Silly as it may seem, it’s as good a reason as any to develop a piece of useful code.
Being a generous sort of chap, whenever I pull a pair of plums from the freshly delivered Fortnum & Mason’s hamper, I always try to ensure she has the larger of the two.
Near the end of the post, he confesses that the code was originally developed to weigh grapes, but that grapes were too light to activate the feature. There is also a fatal flaw with it being used as a digital scale, in that it responds to other forces applied to the screen. After all, the phone was not designed to be a digital scale, so drug dealers can put their excitement away (one more part of the operation replaced by the iPhone).
It’s interesting to see that it changes depending on other forces acting upon the screen which to me indicates that the 6s isn’t going to replace your high precision electronic scales. What this demo does show is that the 6s can handle multiple touch points each with a decent value for their relative forces.
Given that it doesn’t function perfectly and makes obvious that the iPhone has magical powers of force measurement, it would likely be rejected from the official App store. Nonetheless, jailbroken users can compile the code into an App and use it themselves.
Image from Shutterstock.
Finally: The Flying Car, Courtesy of Uber
When we imagined the 21st century in the late lamented sixties, two features were always there: the cities on the Moon and the planets, and the flying cars. Much to our chagrin, neither materialized. But now SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wants to build cities on Mars, and Uber is envisioning a fleet of flying cars, The Wall Street Journal reports.
British Whizz Kid Hacks Pokemon Go; Catches Monsters Without Breaking a Sweat
A 25-year-old British former computer science student has discovered a loophole in the popular Pokemon Go allowing him to catch Pokemon without leaving the comfort of his home.
According to reports, players of the game have resorted to donating thousands of pounds to keep Mark Gore’s ‘bot’ running. Five lawyers are alleged to have urged him to remove the programme.
Mr Gore has stated that his loophole wasn’t designed to take the fun out of the game, which is reported to have seen users harassed by police for walking into restricted areas, according to the British tabloid newspaper, the Sun.
He stated that it was easy exploiting the game, which was created by Niantic. Gore said that over 24,000 people worldwide had been using his site to take advantage of his ‘bot’.
I don’t think I’m spoiling people’s fun. If you look at the age bracket of people playing this game, it’s not all teenagers playing. There are a lot of people who work all day and don’t have the time to spend hours each day going out and catching Pokemon.
He added that those who want to can run the program in the comfort of their own home for two hours a day and still maintain the same level of fun to those who walk around collecting Pokemon.
While it certainly adds a level of safety to the game, does it not take away the authentic feel of it too?
Featured image from Matthew Corley via Shutterstock.
Consumer Drones Outfitted With Geofences Around Restricted Air Space
A project called Airmap has made life easier for two of the major consumer drone producers, DJI and 3D Robotics. The purpose of Airmap is to provide real-time, reliable access to no-fly-zone data. In the case of consumer drones, this can mean a lot more than simply military bases and airport areas.
A football arena can be off-limits because it is full of patrons, for instance, or potentially could be off-limits to drones all the time anyhow. Residential areas could eventually make use of the technology to politely tell drone operators to keep out, in another example.
In Airmap’s own words:
AirMap makes it easy to operate your drone safely, legally, and hassle-free.
Drone operators using custom-built rigs or brands other than DJI and 3D Robotics can still make use of Airmap, if they choose. The software has a mobile-friendly web interface that tells the user
what locations in their area of operation are off-limits.
For many involved in the expensive hobby, Airmap can help mitigate the risk of losing their property to overzealous security forces or otherwise unpredictable elements. Events such as California firefighters complaining of interfering drones could be a thing of the past if Airmap and technologies like it become commonly used by drone enthusiasts.
While homebrew drone operators will always have the final decision as to whether or not they should use Airmap or something like it, technologies like this have a way of making the government think about regulation. For if the operator has the ability to know he is not supposed to be operating in a certain location but is doing so anyway, perhaps there’s an element of criminality afoot (goes the thinking of the regulator).
For their part, commercial drone manufacturers aren’t willing to risk it. By default, several models of DJI’s geofencing program, dubbed GEO or Geospatial Environment Online, which utilizes Airmap’s API, will prevent operators from flying into no-fly-zones. In many locations, users will still have the ability to override the block, but one of the places expressly forbidden is Washington, DC.
One would presume that military bases might also be on such a list. Further, the no-fly-zone list includes places that one might not ordinarily think of, such as prisons and hospitals. The override will require the user to enter sensitive information about themselves, such as a credit card number, in order to increase accountability in the event of incident.
3D Robotics CEO Chris Anderson is on record as saying how important it is to end the “mass jackassery” of drone operators, referring to the reckless flights that some have engaged in. In September, Anderson said:
If we don’t do something about it, no one’s been killed yet, but someone’s going to do something really stupid.
Anderson’s company believes that the ease of drone use which has come over time, with lots of technological innovation along the way, has helped to this end. He told Robotics Trends “we want to make flying as safe as it is easy.”
The move by the companies to implement Airmap technology is no coincidence, in that the Federal Government via Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration are currently looking into successfully mandating drone registration.
Like all new technologies, consumer drones are subject to scrutiny not experienced by more traditional hobbies, and to mitigate the inevitable regulations, companies within the industry must act responsibly to appease regulators ahead of time.
Images from Shutterstock and Wikimedia.
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THE Barry Group has pushed sales in Ireland up by €11.68 million – a 6.2% increase – to €201.02m in the year to the end of January, according to accounts to be filed with the Companies Office this week.
When sales to Britain and the rest of the world are added in, the company reports an increase of sales to €212.5m in the financial year to January 31, 2009, up 4% on 2008 figure of €204.54m.
Group profit before tax rose to €2.67m from €2.55m a year earlier, profit after tax was €2.47m.
James A Barry & Company Limited, trading as The Barry Group, headquartered in Upper Quartertown Mallow where it has its main wholesale operation, supplies products to over 700 stores including 230 affiliated stores in the Republic of Ireland operating under the Costcutter and Quikpick brands.
The Mallow-based cash and carry company this year also started taking on discount retailers such as Lidl and Aldi with cut price offerings at a new discount chain Buy Lo with one outlet in Tralee and others planned.
Group managing director and sole shareholder Jim Barry said they are delighted once more to report an increase in both turnover and profit before tax.
“Despite current challenging market conditions, the board of the Barry Group is confident that we are well positioned to build on our success in the coming years through our ability to offer value to our customers,” he said.
The accounts show the company had 218 employees at the beginning of the year, one less than the prior year.
However, employment costs, including wages, pensions and social welfare contributions, increased to €10.27m from €8.7m a year earlier. The bulk of the increase was wages.
Directors’ remuneration and pension contributions went from €773,540 to €1.02m.
Dividends paid to shareholders during the year came to €343,863 from €112,500 in 2008.
© Irish Examiner Ltd. All rights reserved


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The Indian Media and Entertainment (M&E) industry is a sunrise sector of the economy and is making high growth strides. Proving its resilience to the world, the M&E industry is on the cusp of a strong phase of growth, backed by rising consumer demand and improving advertising revenues. Media and Entertainment industry that started with Radio and Doordarshan has registered an explosive growth in the last two decades making it one of the fastest growing industries in India. The industry consists of different segments under its fold, such as television……….
Enterprise Of The Month
Digitization has changed business scenario for the better good of the nation’s progress. Be it, Digital India Platform, or even Deminetization, India is constantly heading towards being digitized nation. And one simply cannot ………….
The 10 Fastest Growing Media and Entertainment Companies


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A small batch of 64GB iPhone 4 prototypes was reportedly discovered in a "grey" market in Hong Kong, according to a couple Chinese blogs.
MIC Gadget posted photos of the phone's exterior showing that, like the iPhone 4 prototype Gizmodo found in a bar last spring, this model has plenty of X's printed on its case: the model number states 'XXXXX'; FCC ID number is 'BCG- XXXXXX,'; printed capacity is 'XXGB.'
However, as Macrumors notes after analyzing photos of the serial number, the phone was produced in early 2010, pre-dating the launch of the iPhone 4 in June 2010.
This suggests Apple abandoned the idea of launching an iPhone 4 with 64GB of storage. Instead, in June Apple unveiled the iPhone 4 versions with just two different capacities, 16GB and 32GB.
That isn't to say that Apple won't unveil an 64GB version of the iPhone 4 (or as MIC Gadget cheekily speculates, the iPhone 5) in the future. After all, it wouldn't be the first time Apple has launched a third model of the same generation phone one year later. The original iPhone debuted in 2007 with 4GB and 8GB of space, but in February 2008, Apple released another 16GB model.
Then in July 2009 Apple launched the iPhone 3GS in 16GB and 32GB versions, but later added an 8GB model after recession-stricken consumers complained that the phones were priced too high.
Meanwhile when the iPhone 4 launched in June 2010 to great fanfare, one of its criticisms was the lack of a third option with more storage.


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The first round of hiring will see 140 full-time jobs in cybersecurity, software development and data science, among other fields.
ATLANTA — Atlanta is the latest target for Walmart’s expanding Global Tech enterprise.
The U.S. retail behemoth, which holds the top spot on the Forbes Fortune 500 list, announced it will open a tech hub in the city, along with an additional outpost in Toronto, according to reporting from 11Alive’s news partner the Atlanta Business Chronicle. Few details about the planned expansion were announced, including its location or the number of jobs it will create.
The first round of hiring will see 140 full-time jobs in cybersecurity, software development and data science, among other fields. The company plans to add 5,000 jobs across all Global Tech outposts this fiscal year.
Walmart said it chose Atlanta because of its growing tech presence and diverse talent base, two reasons often cited by major tech firms relocating to or opening new hubs in the city.
If the company were to follow in the footsteps of these tech firms, it will flock to Midtown, the nucleus of the city’s tech ecosystem. The newly-emergent West Midtown market, however, is also a viable option, as it is seeing the delivery of several new office towers in 2022 and 2023, including the second phase of the Interlock and 8West.
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There is a possibility Walmart is headed outside of Fulton County, however. At a Buckhead Rotary Club meeting this month, President and CEO of Braves Development Co. Mike Plant announced he was in the final stages of luring a Fortune 100 company to a new office tower at The Battery.
The Atlanta and Toronto outposts will join 15 other Walmart Global Tech hubs, including locations in Austin and Dallas, Silicon Valley, Seattle and Charlotte.


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House Bill 21-1027, which will legalize alcohol to go for takeout and delivery from restaurants until July 1, 2025, passed through the State House of Representatives and Senate chambers on June 8, the last day of the 2021 Colorado legislative session, and is now on its way to Gov. Jared Polis’ desk for his signature.
"This legislation is critical to the recovery of Colorado restaurants, 93% of which have relied on alcohol to go to supplement lost revenue in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a poll conducted last year, 85% of Coloradans over the age of 21 years were in favor of this bill," a Colorado Restaurant Association-issued news release said.
- Extends alcohol for takeout and delivery from a restaurant until July 1, 2025.
- Allows a restaurant to sell alcohol for takeout and delivery between the hours of 7 a.m. and midnight.
- Adjusts, after the pandemic State of Emergency Order is lifted, the following limits on how much alcohol restaurants can sell for takeout and delivery, per transaction:
- One liter of spirits;
- Two 750-ml bottles of wine; and
- Two six-packs of beer.
- Allows cities to create outdoor communal dining areas where two or more restaurants are allowed to attach their liquor licenses and then sell and serve alcohol in that outdoor dining area.


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Aircel has opened its exclusive store on the Poonamali High Road in Chennai. The store has an exclusive 3G experience zone with devices like tablets and smart-phones installed with Aircel SIM cards to give customers a firsthand experience of the quality of Aircel products with high 3G speeds.
The store also has an automated token system for customer convenience with a capacity to service 16 customers at any point of time and 2 Self Help kiosk machines where customers can directly resolve their issues.
Detailing out the retail strategy for Aircel, Sankara Narayanan K, Head- SBU 1 (Chennai & ROTN), said, “We’re investing our energy and resources in both, the online and exclusive retail formats, as they offer convenience to the customers. We have expanded our exclusive retail foot print in the last one year in Chennai by opening Aircel stores in high footfall areas and we expect by end of next year this channel will expand to75 stores with around 1/4 contribution to Aircel business.
This year, Aircel has expanded its retail footprint across the city by setting up 27 exclusive Aircel stores and plans to add on seven more customer touch-points by March 2015. Aircel being one of the leading telecom operators in Chennai and Tamil Nadu works on an aggressive strategy for the Indian market and constantly innovates its products and services. Aircel has taken up the position of a data-led mobile service provider banking on the ‘Extra’ proposition that it offers to its customers.


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Disney’s Mickey Mouse, Others to Enter Conservative Saudi Market
JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia (AP) _ Mickey Mouse and other well-clad Disney favorites will show up as T-shirts, comics and toys sold in Saudi Arabia this fall in a venture described as ″pure, clean fun″ for the conservative kingdom.
Walt Disney Co. officials said Saturday they had signed a deal with a Saudi Arabian company that will inaugurate Disney’s first licensing venture in a Persian Gulf country.
Disney took pains to be ″sensitive to religious and cultural elements″ in Saudi Arabia, said Dennis Hightower, president of Disney Consumer Products for Europe and the Middle East.
Dropped from the product list were some Disney toys and three-dimensional figurines whose sculpted features might alarm conservative Muslims who frown on public displays of the human figure, Hightower said.
″Disney is perfect for Saudi Arabia,″ said Ahmed Jawa, the managing director of Contracting and Trading, the Saudi company which signed the deal with Disney.
″The characters are pure, clean fun for our family-oriented society which places a premium on the well-being of our children,″ Jawa said.
Hightower said Disney would enter the market with T-shirts, children’s toys and other goods. The venture will also use local publishers to put out an Arabic language comic book, he said.
A Saudi recording studio will put out music and read-along tapes.
Unauthorized Disney videos appear in many Saudi stores and assorted Disney paraphernalia can be found in markets. Hightower said Disney officials have discussed with government officials effort to curb the pirating of trademarks.
The United States has threatened to impose trade sanctions on countries that violate trademark and copyright laws and singled out the Gulf region as one area for concern.


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Many Hollywood residents want to put a stop to the practice of the sale of dogs from commercial breeders. They have been attending Commission meetings to voice their demands that the sales be stopped.
At the April 20th Hollywood Commission meeting the first reading of Item PO-2016-06 was an ordinance amending Chapter 92 of the Code entitled “Animals” to prohibit the sale of dogs and cats from pet shops, providing an exception requiring a certificate of source.
The motion was about to fail for lack of Commission support. However, an amendment was suggested to include requirements for sellers such as obtaining AKC certifications. Some other limitations were also suggested and the direction to staff was to work out the specifics before the second reading. The motion passed on a 5-2 vote to bring it back amended for a second reading. Commissioners Patricia Asseff and Traci Callari voted against it.
The item is now due back before the Commission Wednesday June 1st at 1:45 p.m. at City Hall.
It is anticipated the ordinance will have updated language that says something to the effect of pet shops will not be able to sell or give away dogs and cats unless the shop obtains a number of items. For example the animal will need to come from a rescue organization or shelter. The store must display a certificate of the source of the animal by their cage, not sell sick or injured animals and display contact info for workers who are available 24/7.


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Government is committed to assisting Fijians in the marketing of authentic Fijian craft products.
Attorney-General and Minister for Trade and Investment Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said Government was very much committed in empowering women as well.
Speaking at the mother of pearl research project trainee graduation in Ba yesterday, Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said Government was also committed to ensuring the Fijian Made and Fijian Craft products were given recognition.
“That recognition stands on a number of factors; one of them being that if we are able to buy Fijian Made products, we are not just creating jobs, we are also sustaining jobs. Secondly, if we are buying Fijian Made products, we are also helping in increasing the wealth of the country.
“If we are able to market your craft properly, we will have tourists buying it when they come to Fiji.”
He said Government was also trying to work with the private sector to see that there was longevity in the work that such rural groups undertook.
Members of the Tappoo family were also at the graduation and saw the types of jewellery and craft these graduates had made.
“There is no point in making the jewellery if nobody is going to buy it.”
He said many training courses in Fiji failed because there was no form of connectivity between the producers and the market. Government, he said, was working to change that.
“You need a market to sell your products and that is what Buy Fijian and Fijian Made product is all about.”
The nine-week research project, which is funded by the Adelaide University is primarily to train rural women and men in skill sets and to see the market that exists for such products and skills.
These graduates will start phase 2 of their training in April.
(Source: Fiji Sun)


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Juneau, Alaska (KINY) Police are looking for Patrick 'Biscuit" Kane, Jr, 39.
JPD said Mr. Kane is a person of interest in the robbery in the parking lot of Home Depot that occurred on May 22. They also want Kane on a warrant that charges him with violation of conditions of release.
Kane is described as 5'7 and weighs 220 pounds. His photo can be found on the Juneau Police Facebook page.
No one was injured in the incident. The suspect reportedly fought with store employees after a shoplifting incident. Some $400 in store merchandise was taken.
The public can also call Juneau Crime Line at 907-523-7700 or JPD at 907-586-0600 if they have information in the case and be eligible for up to a $2,000 reward.


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Batelco Announces Platinum Sponsorship of Bahrain Sustainable Smart Cities Forum 2017
**Batelco Executives to give Presentation on the Latest Technologies **
Batelco, Bahrain’s leading digital solutions provider has announced its Platinum Sponsorship of the Bahrain Sustainable Smart Cities Forum 2017 which will take place on September 17 and 18 at the Ramee Grand Hotel.
The event, which is under the patronage of the Minister of Works, Municipalities Affairs & Urban Planning, Eng. Essam bin Abdulla Khalaf, will bring together individuals and organizations that are part of the changing landscape of Bahrain as it evolves its digital and ICT capabilities.
Over the course of the 2-day event a number of experts from leading organizations, including Batelco, will give presentations on the latest technologies which are playing a key role in streamlining the day to day running of businesses across all sectors in Bahrain.
Batelco Bahrain CEO Eng. Muna Al Hashemi said that the development and implementation of smart city solutions demand the close participation of all organizations, but particularly the ICT and communications sectors.
“The transition to a digital future and re-defining the lifestyle of consumers and businesses is the main pillar of growth of the global economy and as we think about building our Smart City Infrastructure one of its core components is the digitization of payments and financial transactions for both consumers and businesses,” said Eng. Al Hashemi.
“The Smart Cities vision is one where a growing number of services are provided to citizens in a digitized manner. Some of these will involve financial transactions for services, highlighting the importance of providing fast, secure methods of digital payments for these new services.”
“While Bahrain is still a cash-based society, the trend is changing and a number of payment options are emerging in the local market. Batelco is in the forefront of this evolution and playing a very active role in the financial digital services market,” added Eng. Al Hashemi.
As a key player in the digital communications field, Batelco is assembling the ecosystems necessary to deliver on the vision of Smart Sustainable Cities and is ready to work alongside the government and business sector to ensure the delivery of the relevant solutions required for the future.


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After years of fumbling over how to regulate labels on clothing and other non-food consumer products, the European Union is stepping toward a more harmonized system. On Feb. 13, the European Commission, Europe’s executive branch, proposed a package of new rules aimed at improving market transparency, including laws that would require labeling product origin on imported goods — a topic that has caused member states to clash in the last decade.
If the European Council and Parliament approve the legislation, it will go into effect in 2015, supported in the meantime by 20 “concrete actions” aimed at improving controls under the current legal framework. Under the proposed guidelines, goods made in the EU could be labeled either with a specific country’s name, or with a general “Made in the EU” tag, while items produced outside the borders must be labeled with specific country names.
Speaking for the Italian fashion industry, Michele Tronconi, president of Sistema Moda Italia, an organization that represents the fashion and textile industry, called the proposal “an important step toward defending the rights of consumers, and of producers with high quality standards.”
“We know that some northern European countries that no longer have major manufacturing industries would prefer to maintain the status quo, but I am confident that in the end, safeguarding transparency will prevail,” he said.
ario Boselli, president of the Camera della Moda, said he applauded the Commission’s proposal. “I am beyond happy, because the whole Italian system, based on quality and artisanship, will benefit,” he said. “Better late than never.”
Italy, which takes great pride in its fashion and design, is among the EU countries that have made greater clarity in labeling a cause célèbre over the years. Tronconi said the EU’s initial goal of “developing the internal market” and discouraging overly nationalist sentiment led to the abolition of existing national regulations for labeling product origin, without distinguishing between intra-EU and other trade.
In 2001, China joined the World Trade Organization and on Jan. 1, 2005, the 30-year-old Multi-Fiber Arrangement expired, eliminating quotas on textiles exported from developing countries to developed countries. With the sudden, large-scale influx of products from the Far East, Europe began scrutinizing its labeling regulations.
In 2003, Pascal Lamy, then European Commissioner for Trade, floated the idea of a “Made in Europe” label, mentioned in the Commission’s Oct. 29 report called “The future of the textiles and clothing sector in the enlarged European Union.”
“A ‘Made in Europe’ label could help increase the confidence of consumers, that when they are purchasing a garment they are paying a price that corresponds to the highest standards of production and style expected from European manufacturing,” stated the report. “As is the case in some major EU partners such as the U.S., Japan or China, the EU could consider, as part of its policy aimed at providing better and more information to consumers, the introduction of labeling of origin for textiles and clothing products marketed in the EU.”
The proposal floundered chiefly because of a lack of international recognition of Europe as a unified country.
In the ensuing discussions in 2004, the Commission could not get a majority to agree on a similar proposal for a “Made in Europe” label hyphenated with member countries’ names. Discussions over labeling textiles persisted for years, with mounting frustration from the European fashion industry. In Italy, companies that make national artisan expertise a selling point insisted they were losing business to cheaper products that were not labeled or mislabeled.
Italian products “are associated with the Italian way of life and the three Fs: food, fashion and furnishing,” noted Boselli. “When people buy an Italian product, whether it’s a tie or a design object, they feel like they are joining the club.”
The conflict lay mostly with Austria and Germany, both of which heavily delocalized textile production, said Tronconi. The German press, for instance, has revealed that many lederhosen — the traditional Bavarian leather breeches — are now actually made in Sri Lanka, China or Romania and sold cheaply to unsuspecting tourists. This is one reason, Tronconi argued, why countries like Romania have sided with Austria and Germany in EU debates, whereas Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece and France have all been in favor of requiring country-of-origin labels.
Eurobarometer polls support this assertion: A significant majority of southern Europeans agree the EU should be more actively “protecting European Union products from nonmember countries’ products.”
The Treaty of Lisbon, an amendment to the treaties at the basis of the EU constitution, became effective in 2009 and granted more power to the European Parliament. Over the past several months, arguments over labeling came to a boil when the European Council moved in October 2012 to cease discussions, and in a plenary debate Jan. 17, several members of Parliament accused northern European multinationals with blocking labeling regulations to cover up environmental and social dumping.
Antonio Tajani, the Commission’s vice president and commissioner for industry and entrepreneurship, said the Feb. 13 proposal — which if passed will affect not only textiles, but toys, cars, household gadgets and cosmetics — was needed to “reap the full economic benefit of the single market.”
“We are convinced that consumers, businesses and national authorities will greatly benefit from clear and consistent rules across the single market, with more effective market surveillance and improved traceability of products,” added Tonio Borg, the commissioner for health and consumer policy.
@pantone announced their Color of the Year 2018: Ultra Violet. Nearly 20 months after the musician Prince’s death, fashion is having a purple moment. Varying shades of purple appeared on spring or fall runways, from @christopherkane to @calvinklein. @gucci’s Alessandro Michele bathed his fall runway in ultra violet-colored light at one point. Pantone 18-3838 is meant to “push the boundaries of what inspires us to look upward and outward to the future.” #wwdnews #wwdfashion (📷: @kukukuba)
@badgalriri’s @fentybeauty launch in September was a massive success on social media, powering $72.9 million of earned media value, according to Tribe Dynamics. The brand’s foundation offering sparked conversations about diversity in beauty, launching the growth of emerging influencers and propelling the brand’s support on social media. Today, #fentybeauty won Launch of the Year at the WWD #BeautyIncAwards. (📷: Chema Moya/EPE-EFE)
@marianna_hewitt has become one of the most influential content creators in the beauty space, with almost 800,000 Instagram followers and a newly launched skin care line called @SummerFridays. Today, she was awarded Influencer of the Year at the WWD #BeautyIncAwards. (📸: @sophiachabbott )
As shopping behaviors evolve, the retail experience must follow. Head over to retail experts @colliersinternational’s Knowledge Leader series to read more about the shift in our shopping era. #colliersretail #lovecolliers
@prada opened a pop-up club, called Prada Double Club, in collaboration with German artist Cartsen Höller at @artbasel Miami. Last night, guests – including @youngparis, @ritaora and even Miuccia Prada herself – gathered in a former ice factory where the pop-up is housed for a performance from @wyclefjean. Go to WWD.com for full coverage on all the exhibits, parties and more at #ArtBaselMiami. #wwdeye (📷: @lexieblacklock)
@louboutinworld and @disney are making magic once again, creating a set of shoe designs for the release of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.” Louboutin designed a pair of shoes for each of the film’s four female leads: Rey (@daisyridrey), Vice Admiral Amilyn Holdo (@lauradern), Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie) and Rose Tico (@kellymarietran). The shoes will debut on Saturday at the L.A. premiere of the latest episode. #wwdfashion
Today at the #BeautyIncAwards 2017, WWD will be joined by beauty leaders from around the world as we honor this year's most innovative people, products, brands and places. Follow along here and on Twitter for live coverage from the exclusive event. #wwdsummits (📷: @elizaflorendo)
Exclusive: Beauty superinfluencer @marianna_hewitt is launching her first-ever skin care brand with her business partner @laurengores. Their new line Summer Fridays, which will be sold exclusively at summerfridays.com starting in January, is launching with just one product – a hydrating cream Jet Lag Mask. “We wanted to focus on one product that was amazing,” said Hewitt. Read the full interview on WWD.com. Link in bio. #wwdbeauty #wwdnews
Michelin star-rated chef PJ Calapa marks his first solo endeavor with today’s opening of @scampinyc –– the new Southern Italian restaurant located in Manhattans’ Flatiron District. The upscale yet welcoming environment matches the menu, which includes two types of scampi: traditional Italian langoustines in butter and the Americanized version with shrimp over pasta 🍤 - pictured here. #wwdeye (📷: George Chinsee)